Southern Weddings

From the beginning, we’ve been open about the fact that the part of wedding planning that most excites Katharine is the cake.  For those of you familiar with her affinity for sugar, this should come as no surprise.  Though Katharine has been a little bit indecisive in other areas of wedding planning, the look — and taste — of the cake was an easy decision.

From Katharine: For a self-proclaimed sugar addict, it’s hard not to get excited about the wedding cake.  But even before I thought about the flavors we’d serve, I was trawling Google Images looking for inspiration.  My requests were (fairly) simple: something simple and elegant, with a touch of glamour and maybe a hint of drama if we were lucky.  (I’m pretty sure I used those same words when describing my dream wedding dress.  Ask Randy and Emily for confirmation.)

My dislikes were also pretty straightforward, but equally stringent: nothing flowery, cutesie or overly girly.  Afterall, this is going to be our wedding cake, not just mine.  I want Kyle to like our cake and not feel embarrassed by an over-the-top confection that screams “here comes the bride!” and forgets about her equally-important groom.

A black and white wedding cake seemed appropriately masculine and a must for our B&W evening affair, but it was a special cake feature in Oregon Bride’s Spring/Summer 2010 issue that turned me on to fun embellishments that transform a simple multi-tiered cake into a work of art.  Think ribbon, rhinestones, old-fashioned brooches and lace accents.  Gor-geous, and so unique!  (Not to mention those string of adjectives I like to throw around whenever talking about our wedding: classic, traditional, elegant, and so on…)

When this cake from Jay Qualls at Maples Wedding Cakes popped up in my search for “black and white rhinestone cakes,” I knew I had found the one.  And, unlike my vacillation on paper (black vs. gold ink?), and flowers (all-rose vs. mixed bouquets), I never gave our cake a second thought.  (The only other wedding decision I can say I have been equally confident about is the groom.  Truth.)

What I love about this cake?  The clean black and white exterior is Katharine-approved simple and Kyle-sanctioned manly, but the sleek black ribbon and glitzy rhinestone brooches makes it subtly glamorous.  There, folks, is our wedding in a nutshell.  (Fingers crossed!)

Image credit: Dove Wedding Photography

From Emily: Gorgeous!  There is no denying the simple yet glamorous beauty of the Maples wedding cake.  Any of you Southern belles getting married in Tennessee should hire Jay immediately, on order of Katharine.  For those of you ladies not in TN and still looking for black and white inspiration, we rounded up a few more possibilities:

Image credits, clockwise from top left: Sweet Sensations, Maple Wedding Cakes (photo by Dove Wedding Photography), unknown, Kate Sullivan, Real Simple, Maple Wedding Cakes (photo by Dove Wedding Photography), Martha Stewart Weddings, Brides via Wedding Paper Divas, My Sweet and Saucy (photo by Jasmine Star), Maple Wedding Cakes (photo by Dove Wedding Photography)

From Katharine: So we had the cake.  Easy.  Done.  Moving on.  But with only a few months to go before the big day, it was time to start thinking about the kind of cake + icing we wanted to serve, and who was going to design and make our fabulous confection.  Luckily, my fiancé is no stranger to cakes (see pictures below) and Boston is riddled with some of the best bakeries in the country, so I knew we’d have no trouble checking this off our to-do list.

Since it was Kyle who, truth be told, actually put the finishing touches on our wedding cake and took full responsibility for this sweet project, who better to hand over the blogging reigns to than the future Mr. Katharine Waterman himself?

Enter my groom, best friend and better half, Kyle Gibler:

From Kyle: Thanks, ladies, for the gracious introduction.  If there’s one thing I know in life, it’s video games.  If I had to choose a second, though, it’d be cake.  I have been a lover of baked goods all my life, and for me, cake is the ultimate.  Naturally my main (read: only) job in the planning of this wedding was to nail down the deets of our cake.  Thanks to Katharine (and most likely her helper Emily), we knew what the cake was going to look like on the outside.  But just like my mom always told me, I believe it’s what’s on the inside that counts.  I’ve been a chocolate fan for most of my life, but I wanted to try something a little bit more out there for our wedding.  After all, what’s a black and white affair without a little color?  (Note: Since I am, in fact, color blind, seeing said colors presents a bit of a challenge.)

Ever since I can remember, my mom has baked me Funfetti® cakes and cupcakes for my birthday.  She even got Katharine hooked on the flavor when she started shipping me birthday cakes in college.  When Kat asked me what flavor the wedding cake should be, I thought it only appropriate to choose the sprinkle-flavored goodness.  So that’s it, right?  My job was over.  Not quite…

Kyle enjoying Funfetti through the years

Apparently, cake tasting is a “must” in the wedding world, and we would be having ours at Montilio’s.  Now I was really excited!  A bit of background: this Boston-based bakery provided the cake for JFK’s wedding, Presidents Bush and Reagan’s inaugural balls, Bill Cosby’s birthday and Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Boston.  Montilio’s even baked a cake for the Pope, for God’s sake!  (Pun intended.)

Needless to say, the 63-year old Beantown bakery had an impressive resume, but would its cakes live up to its reputation?  My parents, Katharine and I attempted to find out last Thursday when we visited Montilio’s for an official cake tasting.  As soon as we entered the showroom, I was immediately impressed by the elaborate designs of their display cakes.  My eyes were drawn to a pink birthday cake with black and white zebra stripes, but Katharine vetoed that one.  Walking around the showroom, I knew I had found a haven for cake creators and cake lovers alike!  While the family-run Montilio’s certainly produces cakes that resemble art more than dessert, I secretly was crossing my fingers that their cakes would taste just as good as they looked.

That’s when we met Mia, Montilio’s lead cake designer and our hostess for the day.  Mia laid out a variety of cake slices to sample, and encouraged me to get to work!  And here’s my official verdict: Montilio’s cakes, like my bride-to-be, are almost as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside!  While I was at first sad to hear that Montilio’s didn’t carry the Pillsbury Funfetti brand, I was soon consoled by Mia’s revelation that the bakery had its own equivalent: Confetti.  So it was settled: Confetti all the way!

But as we continued to taste the various offerings, my dad and I shared a special moment over a slice of chocolate fudge cake.  (I’m not kidding: it was that good!)  While I went into our tasting thinking I knew exactly what I wanted in a wedding cake, I surprised myself (and my bride!) when I realized I was smitten with chocolate fudge.  I told Mia about my predicament, and she suggested we have two tiers of Confetti and two tiers of chocolate fudge.  My mom said having two flavors is a plus and that guests likely would appreciate the choice.  I was sold.  (Thanks, Mom + Mia!)

So now the cake will reflect Katharine’s dream on the outside and mine on the inside.   And I will be one happy groom, which is what’s really important here.

From Katharine: I’m pretty sure lovely Mia, cake designer extraordinaire, is Kyle’s new best friend (no joke), so hopefully she isn’t too surprised if she receives an invitation to share in our cake happiness this September from the groom himself.  What can I say: the boy loves his cake.

A huge thank-you to Mia and the entire Montilio’s staff for treating us to such a sweet experience in their main show room.  We left fatter + happier than we came – plus with a hand-drawn design of our wedding cake from Mia herself! – so I’d venture to say the trip was a great success  The only thing we’re more excited about is seeing the final product in September!

Up next? The groom’s look!

Weigh in: what will your cake look like?

Previously:

Intros + Inspiration Boards

The Bridesmaid Dress

The Photographer

The Wedding Website

SW Goes to Kleinfeld

The Paper

The Flowers

Neither Maples Wedding Cakes nor Montilio’s is an SW advertiser and no free services are being received. Katharine’s planning posts are written to share her experiences and personal recommendations, not as advertisement for vendors.  We don’t even tell the vendor that the post is being written.  We just love em : )

From the start, we’ve been up front about one thing: Katharine’s not a big flower fan.  But will her wedding day feature flowers?  Yes, in fact it will.  Read on for the story behind her transformation from flower foe to flower fan!

From Katharine: The cat’s out of the bag: I’m not a flower child, and haven’t spent hours dreaming (or agonizing, as the case may be) about my wedding flowers.  (There’s probably some sort of rehab or intense treatment for wedding editors like me, right?)

But don’t get me wrong: while I’m not a flower expert like my fellow editors, I did have a very clear picture of what kinds of flowers I wanted – and didn’t want – at my wedding.  I’m a traditional bride, and traditional brides carry roses.  Right?  RIGHT.  In true anti-bride fashion, I wasn’t going to carry just any rose, though: my roses would be white, and simple.  No reds, no pinks, no full garden roses… you get the gist.  White Akito roses, with a few spray roses thrown in if I was feeling extra crazy before the wedding.

What about my bridesmaids, you ask?  Yes, you guessed it: my nine lovely attendants (of which Emily is one!) also would carry white roses.  Fun times!  In my defense and in addition to my being a traditionalist who sees white roses as the emblematic wedding flower, I genuinely was – and still am – convinced that an all-white palette would be striking against my maids’ black gowns.  (I’m also marrying the sweetest color-blind boy you’ve ever met, so a black + white wedding is perfect, right?)

From Emily: As Katharine says, she basically started out with flower tunnel vision: white roses, white roses, and (just a few more) white roses.  My first timid suggestion was that she might consider a mix of traditional roses, garden roses, and blown-out spray roses — all in white, of course.  She said she would think about it.  For months, though, it was all roses all the time, and I decided this wasn’t an avenue worth pursuing.  Then one day last week, completely out of the blue, she sent me an email with the title “WEDDING FLOWER SHOCKER.”

From Katharine: I’m honestly not sure who was more shocked – me, the self-described anti-bride who forever and ever and always has insisted she would have an all-rose wedding, or Emily, my trusty right-hand maid who has endured my black + white obsession – but one day I decided there would be other flowers at my wedding.  Other flowers, as in not roses.  Other flowers, like tulips, and sweet peas, and hydrangeas, and baby’s breath and peonies!  Not.  Roses.

Before y’all go all wedding crazy on me, I want to reassure you that I, in fact, still will be carrying a traditional all-white bouquet filled with traditional Akito roses, spray roses and maybe, just maybe, a few garden roses for good measure.  I’m, well, traditional like that.  (My co-maids of honor, little sis Bissy and college friend Molly, will be carrying smaller versions of my bouquet.)  But as for the other seven ladies, well, they’ll each be carrying something different!  And not a single stem will be a rose.

Image credits, clockwise from top left: unknown, Amelia Lyon, personal photo, unknown, Altmix Photography, personal photo, unknown

After seeing a few beyond-gorgeous shots of mix-and-match bouquets (below), I knew that Emily had almost let me make a very, very grave mistake.  To help break up the sea of black that will be my bridesmaids’ dresses, I’m going to pick individual blooms that remind me of each girl.  (I’m saving my flower choices for the big day, but any guesses as to what I’ll be assigning Em?)

The catch: while I was willing to loosen my beyond-strict flower strictures, I wasn’t willing to budge on color.  The bouquets still will be all-white (with very little greenery), but the seven unique blooms should add that subtle flair Emily’s been pushing me to consider for the past year.

Image credits, left to right: Karlin Connell, Trista Lerit via Southern Weddings (bouquets by The Treasured Petal)

Below are a few of the blooms I’m considering for my ladies:  sweet peas, peonies, hydrangeas, tulips, ranunculus, garden roses, snapdragons and baby’s breath.  What do you think?

Image credits: top row: J. Malahy Photography, second row: photos by Trista Lerit via Southern Weddings (bouquets by The Treasured Petal), third row, left to right: unknown, Leigh Miller via Southern Weddings, and The Knot

From Emily: Bouquets?  Check.  Moving on. Since Harvard’s chapel is historic and has pretty stringent guidelines about what can and can’t be used to decorate, the only ceremony decor will be two large clouds of baby’s breath flanking the altar.  Easy peesy.  Why baby’s breath?  All the convincing Katharine needed was Emily + Nathan’s wedding from Leigh Miller, featured on SW back in September.  Gorgeous, right?

Speaking of baby’s breath, it’s managed to make its way into the reception, as well!  And this, ladies and gentlemen, was a feat.  Katharine’s original plan was to set out elegant, multi-armed candelabra on long tables.  And that was it.  Lovely, simple, done?  Not quite.  Though she was not interested in suggestions of interspersed flower arrangements (even white roses!), single stems of blooms, or clustered smaller votives, she bit when I mused it might be lovely to weave garlands of baby’s breath down the center of the table, in between the candelabra.  Lovely, simple, done!

Image credits, clockwise from top left: Marie Labbancz Photography, OC’s Finest Weddings, Weddingbee, I Do Declare, Nightingales, The Knot, Allegro Photography

From Katharine: With flowers settled, there really was only one question left to ponder: who would supply + style the blooms for my big day?  Truth be told, I was more excited about this part than the actual flower planning process, because I knew exactly who I wanted to handle all my flower needs.

Remember our little trip to WaterColor last August?  Did you happen to see the stunning + sophisticated blooms in that spread?  Well I sure did, and I also remembered that the online-based Fifty Flowers was responsible for the SW floral gorgeousness.  I’d heard of DIY brides who ordered their weddings flowers online and designed their own bouquets and arrangements, but wasn’t sure I qualified as a DIY gal.  (I’m not, as Emily would tactfully affirm, the most crafty or creative gal in town!)  But after working directly with owner Liza Atwood and her right-hand lady, publicist Lisa Waddington, to coordinate the flowers for our epic SW photo shoot, I was hooked on the idea of ordering flowers online and designing the arrangements from scratch.  (Fifty Flower’s seemingly endless selection of blooms, and very reasonable prices, didn’t hurt either!  A few SW readers even named FF their Best Wedding Fab Find in a recent SW contest.)

A quick email to Lisa, and we were well on our way to planning the perfect all-white palette for our September wedding.  The only problem?  With Fifty Flowers providing the stunning stems, who would be responsible for styling the blooms?  (Hint: it sure isn’t going to be me!  You can breathe a sigh of relief.)

Our Editor-in-Chief, Lara, is my floral designer!

From Lara: Yep, you are reading this right.  I am doing Katharine’s wedding flowers. I am a professional. I used to design for this guy.  I did flowers for my own company.  I know what I am doing.  Why am I drilling this point home?  1. I love Fifty Flowers.  Their blooms are impeccable. Our Watercolor shoot was a dream.  2. I personally do not, however, like the idea of brides doing their own flowers for large weddings.  Ladies, do not … I repeat … DO NOT attempt to do your own wedding flowers on your own wedding day unless you are really, really prepared!  Trust me, on the morning of your wedding you’ll want to relax, not think about pruning rose thorns so your maids don’t get stabbed.  Maybe have a friend do them.  Maybe.  I always advocate hiring professionals for any service, and your wedding flowers are one area you shouldn’t take chances with.  Phew! OK, now that I have my disclaimer out of the way….

My hotel room will be set at a brisk 55 degrees farenheight all weekend.  I will be solely responsible for the cooling bill at said hotel that month.  I’m okay with that.  Katharine is worth bringing a parka or two in my suitcase!

Katharine’s taste is classic, which means all the best blooms are in order.  Her new love for baby’s breath, thanks to Emily, makes my little floral heart go pitter patter.  We make a great team, no?  One hates, one coerces, one creates!  I’m genuinely honored to be doing this for Katharine and Kyle.  What they’ve chosen is simple, yet purposeful and timeless.  They’ll look back on their pictures in 20 years and still love these blooms.

To help ensure success and minimize stress, I’ve recruited a floral assistant who I’ve used before.  Luckily, I am married to aforementioned assistant, so he enjoys our time together. He would not want me to mention to you that he knows the names of most flowers and more wedding terminology than most females.  Oops.

What I’m most excited about with Katharine’s flowers are the personals.  The bridal bouquet is always my favorite piece to craft.  I love the idea of black ribbon and intricate wrapping around simple monochromatic blooms.  Now if I can just keep myself from balling when I hand her that bouquet in her gorgeous gown.  I will be a mess.  Luckily, flowers happen to like extra water.

Up next? Cake!  Yum.

Weigh in: What sort of flowers are you having at your wedding?  Or do you not like flowers, either?  (Katharine wants to start a support group.)

Previously:

Intros + Inspiration Boards

The Bridesmaid Dress

The Photographer

The Wedding Website

SW Goes to Kleinfeld

The Paper

Fifty Flowers is not an SW advertiser and no free services are being received. Katharine’s planning posts are written to share her experiences and personal recommendations, not as advertisement for vendors.  We don’t even tell the vendor that the post is being written.  We just love em : )  Lara is, however, working for free.  Or maybe just for Luna Bars.